SecurePay Review

Overall Rating

Category Breakdown

Overview

SecurePay (SecurePay.com), aka: Secure Pay, is a wholly owned subsidiary of Calpian Commerce. The company was originally acquired by Pipeline Data in 2002, but when Pipeline went bankrupt, Calpian purchased Pipeline’s assets and took over the SecurePay brand. Possibly based in Alpharetta, Georgia, SecurePay is not a merchant account provider itself but, instead, a payment gateway provider for Calpian’s credit card processing services. SecurePay should not be confused with an Australia-based company called SecurePay (securepay.com.au), which appears to be a completely unrelated organization.

Although the SecurePay website lists Pipeline Data’s old Georgia headquarters as the location of SecurePay, the Better Business Bureau lists the company’s address as 1515 Hancock St, Quincy, Massachusetts 02169. The company is a registered ISO/MSP of BMO Harris Bank, N.A. of Chicago, Illinois, or Meridian Bank of Devon, Pennsylvania, and or Wells Fargo Bank of Walnut Creek, California. Norma Ramgopal is listed as the director of risk at Calpian/SecurePay.

Key Points

Sales & Marketing: SecurePay appears to hire independent sales representatives but has not received any merchant complaints about its sales team.

Costs & Contract: SecurePay appears to offer a multi-year agreement with a variable early termination fee.

Sales & Marketing

Key Points - Sales & Marketing

Employs Independent Resellers

Yes

Advertises Deceptive Rates

No

Discloses All Important Terms

No

SecurePay’s services appear to be marketed primarily through independent distributors and resellers. The company’s credit card processing can also be obtained directly from SecurePay, or as packaged with a merchant account from a third-party processing company. SecurePay does not appear to utilize any deceptive sales tactics, but a few of the companies with which it is associated have suffered complaints regarding misleading marketing and sales practices. Given the lack of SecurePay complaints that accuse the company’s sales team of deceptive tactics, we are assigning it a grade of “A” for the time being.

Phillip’s Top E-Commerce Picks

Costs & Contract

Key Points - Costs & Contract

Swiped Rate

N/A

Keyed-in Rate

.25%-1% Plus $0.25

Early Termination Fee

$400 Plus

PCI Compliance Fee

Variable

Equipment Lease Terms

Variable

Pricing and contract terms of SecurePay’s services may vary depending on how the account was obtained and by a merchant’s business type and processing volume; however, the company’s standard pricing when combined with a Calpian Commerce merchant account appears to be more expensive than average.

Since Calpian owns SecurePay, the company essentially “double dips” by first charging the transaction fees for the Calpian merchant account. Then SecurePay tacks on an additional 0.25% for “Qualified” transactions or 1% for “Mid-Qualified” and “Non-Qualified” transactions (the most common type of transactions), plus an additional $0.25 per transaction. This means that merchants processing with Calpian Commerce through the SecurePay payment gateway could be paying upwards of 4%-5% per transaction, which is extremely high. It’s unclear if the additional monthly fees are a combination of Calpian’s and SecurePay’s fees, or if merchants will experience different monthly fees from both companies.

Based on merchant reports, SecurePay may also charge an Early Termination Fee (ETF) in excess of $400 for cancelling service before the expiration of the service agreement. As of this review, the length of the standard service agreement is unclear, and it’s not apparent whether the ETF is charged by SecurePay or the merchant account provider. Merchants are advised to thoroughly read all agreements before signing.

Complaints & Service

Key Points - Complaints & Service

Total Online Complaints

20+

Live Customer Support

Yes

Most Common Complaint

Hidden Fees

SecurePay has a moderate amount of complaints for its size and time in business, most of which were posted before 2013. Most of the complaints also name its parent and sister companies, such as Pipeline Data, Cynergy Data, and Charge.com. The common themes in many of the complaints are reports of surprise/undisclosed fees, holding of funds without notice, and poor customer service. When researching SecurePay complaints, merchants should be sure to search for both “SecurePay” and “Secure Pay.”

BBB

Key Points - BBB

Product & Service Complaints

0

Billing & Collection Complaints

0

Advertising & Sales Complaints

0

Guarantee & Warranty Complaints

0

Delivery Complaints

0

As of this review, the Better Business Bureau is reporting an “A+” rating for SecurePay and stating that the company has not received BBB accreditation. It’s important to note that complaints about SecurePay may end up on the BBB profiles of Calpian Commerce, Pipeline Data, or Cynergy Data in error since these appear to be the parent companies of SecurePay.

The SecurePay BBB report currently shows a total of zero complaints filed within the last 36 months, but it’s possible that the complaints were moved to the profiles of SecurePay’s partner companies. Without any evidence that this is occurring, we agree with the BBB’s rating at this time.

SecurePay Bottom Line

SecurePay appears to be primarily a payment gateway used by Calpian Commerce and its affiliates. The reviews of the service are mixed; however, the reviews of its parent company are poor. Merchants would be wise to read and understand all service agreements before signing.

About Phillip Parker

Hi, I’m Phillip and I’m disgusted by the state of credit card processing in the U.S. and abroad. I believe that the industry has been overrun by people who engage in fraud and deception in order to steal money from hard working business owners. I’ve made it my mission to expose the companies and individuals who engage in predatory marketing, pricing, and contracts, or just provide terrible service. Along with uncovering the bad guys, I’ve also discovered the good guys who do stand out from the status quo. CPO is a website where you will find ratings and reviews of these companies along with advice on how to save money and which service providers consider. Together we can move the industry in a positive direction. If you would like to help support my work, please checkout “Fee Sweep” my eGuide to getting the lowest possible fees when accepting card payments. If you haven’t heard of “interchange” this advice will save you hundreds, even thousands, in processing fees.

Phillip’s Merchant Account Rate and Fee Savings Guide

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Any unauthorized copying and reproduction of the content of this page, including all meta data and computer code, is strictly prohibited. While the information in the above article is believed to be accurate as of its publish date, the author and publisher make no representation or warranties with respect to the accuracy, applicability, fitness, or completeness of the contents. The author and publisher shall in no event be held liable to any party for any direct, indirect, punitive, special, incidental or other consequential damages arising directly or indirectly from any use of this material, which is provided “as is,” and without warranties. Any and all use of trade names and/or marks are for identification purposes only and shall not be construed as a claim of affiliation, or otherwise, with CardPaymentOptions.com, Inc. ("CPO") in any form. The sole purpose of the material presented herein is to alert, educate, and inform readers. It is not intended as legal or financial advice.

7 ReviewsLeave Your Review Below

WARNING! Horrible scamming jerks. Took hundreds of dollars out of my account for charges they were by contract, not entitled to. Refused to return the money. Refused to connect me with upper management. Never returned my phone calls. Before I quit, I emptied the bank account that they had access to, in order to insure they could not scam me on my way out. They are damn fortunate that the amount they stole did not quite rise to a level that would motivate me to file formal complaints with the authorities.

In my opinion, this site [SecurePay.com] is more than a scam site, but outright illegal in their tactics. I second the warning to NEVER do business with this company. They have refused to release monies from credit cards I have run, charged me $450 cancellation fee and have continued to pull money from my bank account as a monthly fee…grrrr. PLEASE DO NOT USE THIS COMPANY.

Please keep the info flowing….just got into a situation with these folks and not happy. Seems I let us accept a card over/ outside of our limits. Can you believe that?. Their Risk Management people are totally unprofessional! Our Good customer can’t believe our funds are in limbo …. got the termination letter etc. Haven’t checked personally yet, but I understand from another posting that their BBB rating is an “F” on a scale of A-F on the Georgia site….Gee I wonder why! Suzanne…hope you’re successful

I have had the WORST experience with securepay. Three months after cancelling my service with them, they are still withdrawing money from my account. I have called multiple times and told that I will be credited, which has not happened yet. I was also just told that I will have to pay over $400 for a cancellation fee. I was sure that I had checked about a cancellation fee when I signed up and was told they did not have one. So I called back and talked to sales, explained to them that I was interested in opening an account and sure enough…they told me I could go month to month , no cancellation fee….etc. I am willing to continue this fight, but if it is not resolved soon I will be filing a law suit.

Can you tell me how which name was written in your bank account when secure pay or pipe line data company was charging the money in to your back account. you can make a dispute against them in your bank to stop charging money to your bank account. I need the name because this is my first months but i don’t have option to accept their system in my website to use credit card processing. so i have cancel it. i contact with my bank they said to me that they need the name to stop any payment. thanks

Provider of the Month

Why Fattmerchant: This provider has one of the most competitive pricing plans of any merchant account provider in the card processing industry. Fattmerchant also offers a month-to-month service agreement, no cancellation fees, no hidden fees, and processing options for virtually any business need. Add to all of this easy-to-use technology and top-rated customer support, and you can’t go wrong with this choice.

Exposing The Truth

Hi, I’m Phillip and I’m disgusted by the state of credit card processing industry. I believe that it has been overrun by people who engage in fraud and deception in order to steal from hard working business owners. I’ve made it my mission to expose the companies and individuals who engage in predatory marketing, pricing, and contracts. You shouldn’t have to worry about paying inflated fees or getting trapped in expensive contracts when you are simply trying to take payments from your customers.

Phillip Parker Founder & Critic

P.S. If you would like to help support my work, please checkout “Fee Sweep” my eGuide to getting the lowest possible fees when accepting card payments. If you haven’t heard of “interchange” this advice will save you hundreds, even thousands, in fees.